I planned out this epic little trek through eastern Iowa. And somewhere in the middle I messed up. We drove completely around Tipton and the Cedar County Courthouse.

(A) Des Moines

(B) Cedar Rapids

(C) Anamosa

(D) Maquoketa

(E) Clinton

(F) Davenport

(G) Muscatine

(H) Iowa City

(I) Marengo

(J) Newton

(K) Des Moines

A total of 458.8 miles and 9 hours and 4 minutes of driving time.

60. Linn County Courthouse. Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Pretty neat how this one is on an island in the Cedar River.

61. Jones County Courthouse. Anamosa, Iowa.

62. Jackson County Courthouse. Maquoketa, Iowa.

Drove by this one almost a dozen times before we realized this little office building was their grand courthouse. What a let down. I’m sure they saved their taxpayers tons of money… or at least they should have.

63. Clinton County Courthouse. Clinton, Iowa.

64. Scott County Courthouse. Davenport, Iowa.

We liked this one. It wasn’t difficult to find and the modern look is very, um, inviting. The building itself isn’t as imposing as it seems in the picture.

One weekend at deer camp, I wrote a book. I had bought this little leather book full of blank pages at Barnes & Noble. The idea was simple. I wanted to write down the story of Jami and I. I started with us meeting, and chapter by chapter, I added more and more of our story. When I got to Chapter 33, I wrote one sentence:

Will you marry me, Jami?

Christmas Eve morning, I woke her up nice and early. I let her read the last three chapters and she said, “Yes, of course.”

With the decision to wed, came a new plan. We wanted to finish the courthouses before the wedding in October. That led us to the decision to not take the winter off and at the beginning of January, we headed North once again. This time intending to swing through Nashua so Jami could see the location of our vows at The Little Brown Church in the Vale.

(A) Des Moines

(B) Grundy Center

(C) Allison

(D) Charles City

(E) Waverly

(F) Waterloo

(G) Toledo

(H) Marshalltown

(I) Des Moines

A total of 308.5 miles and 6 hours and 44 minutes of driving time.

34. Grundy County Courthouse. Grundy Center, Iowa.

I was worried about this one turning out. The sun was behind the building, leaving it very dark. Through some tweaking in Windows Live Photo Gallery, I came up with this.

35. Butler County Courthouse. Allison, Iowa.

I’m not happy with this one at all. Another hard picture to pull off because of the position of the sun.

36. Floyd County Courthouse. Charles City, Iowa.

The Cedar River Dam at Nashua:

37. Bremer County Courthouse. Waverly, Iowa.

38. Black Hawk County Courthouse. Waterloo, Iowa.

I liked how this one turned out. The gentle curves make it appear as if I used a fish-eye lens.

At the end of October is a traditional event for us… Woodsie’s Annual Halloween Party. This is normally one of those events that ends with three guys in various states of costumed undress sitting around a quarter full keg trying to be “champions” (or “winners” if you’re into that whole Charlie Sheen lingo thing), and finish it off before the sun peeks over the horizon.

We had planned on driving due north out of Des Moines and hit all the courthouses to the Minnesota border and back the next morning. But that involved some level of restraint at the party, because seriously, who wants to drive 8 hours with a massive hangover.

Through the magic of decision-making, I avoided the keg beer and drank light. We didn’t head out at dawn like we planned, but we did hit the road before 8.

(A) Des Moines

(B) Nevada

(C) Eldora

(D) Hampton

(E) Mason City

(F) Northwood

(G) Forest City

(H) Garner

(I) Clarion

(J) Webster City

(K) Des Moines

A total of 355.4 miles and 8 hours and 47 minutes of driving time.

After a brief stop at the McDonalds in Altoona for breakfast, we headed for our first stop of the day, Nevada.

25. Story County Courthouse. Nevada, Iowa.

Wind farms have become a very common sight in rural Iowa.

26. Hardin County Courthouse. Eldora, Iowa.

This courthouse was receiving some much needed love. They had completely removed all of the trees and plants from the square, which left of us with a perfect view from every angle. There are quite a few courthouses that could learn something from the fine folks in Hardin County. Show off your buildings, don’t hide them behind trees!

27. Franklin County Courthouse. Hampton, Iowa.

Jami and I both liked the park across the street from the Courthouse and we thought it would look great included in this shot.

This was neat:

28. Cerro Gordo County Courthouse. Mason City, Iowa.

Hard to shoot this one. There wasn’t any green space to stand in, the building sits right up on the road. It was a busy road, too. We had to wait for breaks in traffic to take the shots.

Also in Mason City is a hotel the Frank Lloyd Wright designed. It’s currently undergoing renovations. Here it is:

29. Worth County Courthouse. Northwood, Iowa.

This bank caught my eye:

30. Winnebago County Courthouse. Forest City, Iowa.

31. Hancock County Courthouse. Garner, Iowa.

32. Wright County Courthouse. Clarion, Iowa.

33. Hamilton County Courthouse. Webster City, Iowa.

Had to call my dad and have him find this one on the internet for me. We drove all over this town looking for this building, which sits on Highway 20 on the very far south of town. I think we managed to find where the previous building had been downtown, but couldn’t find this one.

We ran out of sunlight outside of Stratford on the way to Boone. I did get some shots of the sunset though: